


Stay

by MoonlightxStars



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: Aged Up, F/F, F/M, M/M, hospital au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2019-02-27
Packaged: 2019-04-19 00:53:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,433
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14225559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MoonlightxStars/pseuds/MoonlightxStars
Summary: He didn't mean to end up in that room, it was an accident, an honest mistake. However, he couldn't forget what he saw in that room, and he certainly couldn't forget that girl. He has opened the hospital's Pandora's Box, and he has no intention of closing it.





	1. Chapter 1

He never particularly liked the smell of hospitals. They smelled too steril and lacked a certain life element. He also never liked the look of them. Too white. However, he was there for his friend. His friend who he accidentally put in there.

He told Piper it wasn’t his fault, he had told Jason not to stand under him while he rebricked a part of their house after the storm had taken some of it out. However, his ever so “I need to be Superman at all cost” friend decided to stupidly ignore him, and bam, he got hit in the head with a brick. Piper had just seen him fall, and that was enough to load him up in their vehicle and drive him to the hospital. She had glared at him, looking like she was preparing a lecture in her head, but she didn’t say anything. 

Which was why he was now walking down the hall of the too white hospital, his boots squeaking on the too clean tile floors. Nurses and doctors passed by him, all looking down at their charts, and not paying attention to the obviously very lost boy. Piper had told him the room number when she called him. Now, however, he couldn’t remember it. Possibly because he was too busy tuning her out as she grated him about how he shouldn’t have even let Jason do his work. He could almost picture her scrunched up nose and frown on her face. He was going to get it when he arrived.

If he arrived. He was still having trouble finding his way around this labyrinth of a place. The overhead speakers spoke every so often, and he heard the beeps of the machines aiding to people. It gave him the creeps if he were being honest. 

Okay, what did he know about where Jason was? He was in a special place where patients go if they were going to be in hospital for a long time. Apparently, the brick hit him pretty hard, and being such a lightweight, he went down pretty instantly. For such a buff, strong looking guy, he had a soft head. What number was the room again, though? His hands started sweating. He was getting anxious from being here for so long. Hospitals were unnerving, people died in them constantly.

He just had to clear his thoughts, think of happy things, like what he was going to do later on in the week. He was going to start his project after helping his friends out, and it was going to be big. He hadn’t shared any of the details with anyone yet, and he wasn’t going to. It was meant to be a surprise, a way to get his shop up and running.

Making a few more turns, he stumbled across two rooms. He looked at the numbers and something dully rang in his head rooms 221 and 223. Didn’t Piper say his room were either of these two numbers? He thought about it, and gave it his best shot. 223 seemed like the right choice of numbers, and honestly he chose it because he just wanted to be out of the hallway altogether. 

He said goodbye to the dreary hallway that was much too white, maybe if they added some red then the hospital could possibly look more homey, and entered the open door into 223, preparing his speech for Piper.

“Look, Pipes, I’m sorry about everything, I just…” he trailed off as he saw a girl who he has never seen before whip her head at him, eyes ablazed. She looked him over once and grimaced. “You’re not Jason,” he commented stupidly.

The girl just huffed, crossing her arms and looking back out the open window. It was strangely opened, the sheer curtains drifting a little from the soft breeze from outside. He glanced around the room, and realized it was much too lived in to be a normal hospital room. 

A white wooden desk sat in the far corner of the room, the perfect perch to watch the bustling cars outside. School books laid on it, from elementary to college aged. Some stuffed animals adorned the desktop, most notably was the large dolphin with a ‘Get Well Soon!’ stitched in a seafoam color on its side. On the left side of the girl stood a white bookcase. This time, some cards decorated the top, along with some books, most of them related to Greek Mythology.

It seemed too homey, and it unnerved him. Why was this room so personalized? How long has this girl been in the hospital, glaring out the same window? He suddenly felt claustrophobic, and couldn’t deal with the idea of the girl being in here. His palms were sweating profusely, and he could feel his breathing begin to get erratic. Why was this affecting him so much? Maybe it was because it was a hospital, and the idea someone being in here for most of their life was unappealing. 

He tried to back out of the room without incident, without making the moody girl stare accusingly at him for another time. Instead, he backed right up into a dining tray that was away from its position. Of course he wasn’t expecting it, he didn’t even know how it came to be behind him in the first place. Maybe it was because of his rotten luck, he’d never know. All he knew was that he bumped into the dining tray and very comically fell onto it, breaking the table. May it rest in peace.

The girl again whipped her head to the sound, her dark eyes once more ablazed with pure resentment. She was just the cheery type, wasn’t she? An aggravated yell escaped her lips, her face turning red from anger. Maybe she was in here for long-term anger control.

“What have you done to my dining tray?” She seethed, eyes narrowed dangerously. Leo wanted to run from the girl, she was absolutely terrifying. Instead, he was glued to his spot, mouth open to make a retort that never came out. He later noted that his face must’ve resembled that of a gaping fish. 

The girl continued to glare at him with nothing but hatred as his brain kept trying to come up with some sort of intelligent line. All he kept thinking of was that if this girl stopped looking like he killed her goldfish, then she would be drop dead gorgeous. Her caramel brown colored hair was braided neatly, resting peacefully on her left shoulder. However, her face was turning into that color and it Leo would be lying if he said that the girl didn’t intimidate him. On the other hand, she was just like those pretty girls from school, the ones who looked at him like he was a mutant, and mutants were only if cool if you were part of the X-Men and or a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Leo was neither a turtle or part of the X-Men.

This gave him some sort of leverage as he was looking at this girl who was about to kill him by the flick of her wrist. She was no different from those girls from high school, and he was so done with high school. Dealing with this girl should be easy enough. He steeled himself and stared her down.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Sunshine, didn’t mean to disturb your holy sanctuary. I just stumbled into the wrong room, no need to look like you’re about to smite me.” He said, his tone biting. 

The girl seemed to hate that he wasn’t going to whimper for mercy and bow to her, offering her presents for forgiveness because she simply harrumphed and went back staring at the window. She seemed to say something under her breath, but Leo couldn’t understand her. Instead, she kept twisting her knitted yellow blanket around her hands, almost like she was trying to not get up and punch him.

He still sat dumbly on the floor, he honestly expected more of a fight than what he was given, but something about the girl made him not want to press her for more. He should probably leave. Jason was the room next door and he honestly would prefer to be grilled by Piper than be in this room a moment longer with this chick. He started to get up from off the floor when the girl once again looked at him. Her eyes were still hard, but they held something else. Determination? Maybe. 

“I won’t tell if you won’t tell,” she suddenly spoke. Again, he looked at her dumbly. Maybe he was a mutant fish. The girl frowned and looked out the window again, this time untwisting her hands from her blanket. He probably should’ve figured out what she was planning from the beginning, but his brain was processing things slowly, like it was made out of syrup. That was a first. 

The girl began to lift her comforter back, her pale hand shaking slightly from effort. Leo wondered how long she’s been confined to that bed, and he was also questioning as to why he was still in this room. It was weird to him, he found that he couldn’t move. Almost like he was glued to this spot. That wasn’t reassuring. 

She pushed the comforter back, moving her legs to dangle on the edge of her bed. She took a shaky breath and braced herself on the bookshelf, using it to help her push herself off the bed. She wobbled as she struggled to stand on her legs, and Leo was afraid that she was going to topple over. Maybe he should help her? Nah, that’d be awkward, especially after their glare down. Besides, the girl seemed to know what she was doing...sort of. She stumbled and braced herself on the bookshelf. Her legs seemed to collapse slightly, but she only forced them to hold her more. Whatever she was doing, she was determined.

Maybe it was part of her discharge. If she was able to walk all by herself competently, then she would be able to go. Which is probably why she was practicing, so when her doctor came in to check on her, she could go “hey doc, look what I can do!” And perform a series of acrobatic routines.

That idea quickly dissolved as Leo saw that she was just walking over to the window. She collapsed slightly on the wall, but kept herself upright by the window. She was just staring down below wistfully, her face softening, making her appear more like a younger teenaged girl who was crushing on someone. 

Her bottom lip quivered slightly, almost like she was about to cry. Her fingers were trembling from effort of keeping herself up, but she still carried on. She began to reach her finger out of the open window, letting her hand catch the warmth of the afternoon sun. She smiled slightly as she let her hand dance in the sunlight and feel the warm breeze. The girl breathed in deeply, and for a moment, Leo thought she was a lot prettier now that she was feeling serene.

The moment was shattered when her legs suddenly gave out, and she let out a cry of surprise and frustration. She crashed on the tile floor, bones roughly hitting the floor. She let out another frustrated scream as hot tears started to swamp her face, her cheeks turning red.

That was when Leo felt someone push him aside like he was some rag doll. He caught the blur of scrubs as the person pushed passed him and go straight to the fallen girl. The person- a man- sighed as he looked at the sight of her.

“Calypso, really?” He asked. Leo could only see his back, but the man had blonde hair and a nice build. He obviously worked out. The nurse went to pick her up, but she only screamed at him.

“I got this, okay? I don’t need your help, Lester.” She bit with such venom, Leo again felt scared of her. The nurse- Lester?- Only sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I tell you time and time again that I go by my middle name. Apollo is much more dignified than Lester, makes me sound like the handsome man that I am.” The nurse chided. The girl- Cal...what?- made a disgruntled noise. 

“You’re as narcissistic as ever,” she grumbled. She began to attempt to get herself off the ground, only to find out her legs were useless.

She began to throw another frustrated tantrum as she hit her legs, wanting them to obey her. The nurse only sighed. 

“I told you it was too early for extended time out of your bed. After your little trip last week, I thought you’d get it into your little head. I don’t think Dr. Solace will really like to hear about this adventure.” He chided. There was some amusement behind his words. It was like they had this conversation before, but the constant tease seemed to get him going.

The girl only grumbled more as she slapped her legs to wake them up. Leo really felt like an intruder now, like he uncovered a secret the hospital was trying to hide. 

“Come on, you don’t have to stay in here for much longer. Let’s get you back in bed, and will you stop slapping your legs? You know that that won’t do much.” The nurse sounded bored again, like he was going through routine with her. However, the girl only crossed her arms and pouted.

“You said that the last time.” She remarked, staring out the window, the wanting back in her gaze.

The nurse sighed again. Leo was glad he didn’t have this job of looking after such a difficult patient.

“You’re right, I did, and you still believe me. It hasn’t been that long.” He said tiredly. Something told Leo that it’s been a very long time. 

“15 years and 68 days,” she jabbed. Leo balked. How could anyone stay in the hospital for that long? Wasn’t there some code that prevented that? What were her hospital bills like?

He’d really need to get out of this room before he finds out anything else about this girl. It was already jarring enough that she spent most of her life in a hospital room, and now he was about to get the whole rundown as to why if he stayed any longer.

The nurse turned, muttering something under his breath, as he turned he caught sight of Leo, and his eyebrows squished together.

“You’re new,” he told him almost rudely. Leo didn’t know if he should’ve been offended or not. He’s been feeling that a lot today. “Is he a new boyfriend for you, Caly?”

The girl scrunched her nose up and she tutted her tongue.

“Don’t call me that, and of course not. I swear if you’re the one that sent him here-”

“Don’t make swears to something you can’t uphold, Caly. Of course I didn’t send him here, only a moron would send someone to you. I feel bad for him really.” The nurse shrugged, his eyes turned to Leo again. “So, why are you here?”

Leo once again felt like a fish out of water. Now he knows how Frank feels half the time. He opened and closed his mouth stupidly, and honestly that was embarrassing enough.

“I-I-uh, mixed up my room numbers. Dyslexic, yeah. My friend is next door...I’ll be going now.” He stuttered. The girl looked at him darkly and crossed her arms.

The nurse shook his head a bit too dramatically as he looked over to his patient in bed.

“Here I thought someone was going to spend time with you again. It’s been awhile since your last visitor, right? Not since-”

“Don’t,” she snapped, her eyes again ablazed. Leo crept back to the doorway, not wanting to see any more of this. The nurse even looked taken aback from her sudden anger as he also jolted back slightly. “I don’t want to hear his name again.”

“I thought you two were friends!”

“We were. Then he stopped coming. He got a girlfriend and forgot about me. The last time he was here he just talked on and on about her, saying how she’d be a great tutor for me. Then, boom, never returned again.” She spat. Now Leo officially felt like he was intruding on something way too personal. He crept closer to the hallway. He was 100% done with this girl.

The nurse looked at him pitifully, almost like he was sorry that he had to witness this trainwreck. 

He finally got to the hallway and was outside the room, the nurse followed him out, his face twisted in annoyance.

“Sorry about that. She’s been getting antsy ever since we began to limit her time outside. Also, she hasn’t had any visitors in two years, which only makes her more agitated.” The nurse explained, occasionally looking in the room.

“Why hasn’t she had any visitors?” He asked. He shouldn’t pry, but didn’t she have any family members that cared for her? The nurse only sighed again.

“She’s been in here a long time. When she first came in, she’d have visitors coming in until visiting hours were over. Then, as time went on, less and less people started coming in. That was it. Then, two years ago, we had a volunteer who kept visiting her for a while, and her mood got better, she was less agitated. Then he stopped coming.” The nurse explained. His eyes widened and put a hand to his mouth. “I shouldn’t have told you all that, but I do love the sound of my own voice, and gossiping. I should go.”

The nurse hurried in the room and closed the door behind him. Leo heard a muffled noise something about blood being drawn and a disgruntled sound. He stood there in the hallway just gaping at the door. To have been in that hospital for 15 years and have little to no contact for at least two years sounds upsetting. Hospitals sucked enough, but this girl was literally trapped in one with no friends. 

Still, she seemed prickly, so maybe her old friends didn’t want to deal with all of that. 

He shrugged it off and turned away from the door. Him going in there was an accident, it wasn’t supposed to happen. Maybe that would teach him to pay attention more.

He made a beeline to the open door next to the girl’s room and went in, his speech that he had made was now gone. As he walked in, Piper looked up from Jason’s bedside and looked at him warily. 

“Where have you been?” She asked, her tone lacking in the nagging he assumed she was supposed to have when asking that question.

“I got lost,” he admitted sheepishly, putting on his persona of the goofball he’s known for. He grinned devilishly. He turned to Jason and dropped the smile. “How is he?”

Piper sighed, God he’s been hearing people sigh way too much today.

“He’ll live,” she told him. “They just don’t know when he’ll wake up, or if he lost some memory.”

“I’m sorry, Piper, I should’ve-”

“Enough,” Leo immediately shut his mouth, he didn’t know what it was but Piper had that way with her tone of voice that just made people do whatever she wanted them to do. “The good thing is that he’s being monitored, and he’s in a safe place. We just need to take things one step at a time right now. I know I was mad, Leo, but it wasn’t your fault, and it wasn’t Jason’s. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Piper smiled at him gently and turned her attention back to Jason, taking his hand and stroking it.

Jason wasn’t the only one in the wrong place at the wrong time. Leo had opened the hospital’s Pandora’s Box, and like Pandora, he didn’t know how to close it.


	2. Chapter 2

It had started out as a typical day for her. Her nurse–Lester–had come in and issued another blood test for another attempt of figuring out what was wrong with her. He said some remark to her about getting out of the hospital and she bit back a retort. He had given her breakfast and made her promise to eat it all. He kept saying how she needed to keep her sugars up after getting blood drawn. Not that she disagreed with him, she had skipped out on breakfast before as a way to have some control in her life after getting her blood drawn and she promptly fainted. She vowed not to do that again.

She stared out her window for most of the morning. The unchanging scene made her anxious. She wanted to get out, she wanted to wander. The fact that she was bound to this hospital bed until further testing due to her last episode made her even angrier. She hadn’t been outside in four months because of her back to back episodes, and her legs were itching to get out of bed.

No one knew what was wrong with her, of course. Not even she knew what was wrong. All she knew was that she sometimes had these episodes that left her comatose for three days to a month sometimes. It’s why they bound her to the hospital. They didn’t know how to control them, or what was causing them. Plus, no one was around to take care of her, so the hospital was the only reasonable choice.

When she first had an episode, she was around eight. Her mother was still around, and so were most of her family members. She had went to the hospital and the doctor had run all sort of tests on her. Nothing he found was abnormal, so he just sent her on her way. Then they started happening again and again, even more violent than the first time. She could’ve been doing something, and then boom, she was on the floor completely still and unresponsive. 

However, her mother had left by the time she was admitted to the hospital again, and her father was found guilty for something that she didn’t know about. Her classmates and sisters came to her room mostly. They tried to make her feel normal, as normal as you can feel in a hospital. They bought her presents and sent her cards, all saying the same taunting words of ‘Get Well Soon!’ Like that will ever happen.

Now at twenty-three years old, and still in the damn hospital. The people who had visited her regularly have all vanished from her life. Even her sisters. They were out in the world making a name for themselves, while she was in a hospital with a body who hated her.

She was more than bitter. She was lonely. The most human contact she had was with her doctor and her nurse. They didn’t even let her seek out other patients because they were afraid of her getting sick. 

So, she was just enjoying her afternoon as well as she could, looking towards the trees longingly when he walked in. 

He had a cocky air about him, something that she didn’t really appreciate. She’d rather self-loathe in peace, thank you very much.

Him stupidly declaring that she wasn’t Jason made her want to yell “well duh!” at him. However, she decided that she shouldn’t be wasting her breath on him. Instead, she just sourly huffed at him and continued to stare longingly out her stupid window. She had made Lester open it for her this morning. He told her it was a bad idea, but she was a stubborn girl. She argued with him about it until finally he relented. He had told her how much of a brat she was, and she stuck out her tongue. 

It wasn’t until he had broke her dining tray did she snap. How dare he break it. Maybe she was just jealous because he was the one to break it. She didn’t really know why. Whatever it was, it made her make up her mind.

“Stupid boy,” she muttered, as she turned back to the window, twisting her blanket in her fist. Her sisters had knitted the blanket for her because she complained it was too cold in the hospital. She had kept it only because it made her feel a connection between her and her family. She missed them, but they were never coming back. 

That final thought had her turning her attention back to the boy who was just staring at her like an idiot. No one had to know about her little adventure. Not Lester, not Dr Solace. It could be a secret between her and this boy she had just met. Finally, a secret she was let in on. 

She shakily got out of bed, having been confined to the bed for a few months and now suddenly getting out of it with no help was ambitious, even by her standards. She had to try though. Maybe if she was able to go to the window and her doctor saw her standing on her own, maybe he’d let her outside again. 

“If you don’t have another episode for a few months, then maybe you’ll be discharged,” a rotten voice taunted. She took a shaky breath and told it to shut up. Still, it was a pleasant thought. She could be normal. Go to college instead of having a tutor come to her. Meet someone, fall in love, get married. That was what she wanted. Well, throw in a Ph.D and that would be a perfect life for her. 

Her feet prickled with being walked on, and her knees were buckling. She had to push forward though. She needed to feel the sun’s warmth again. She could remember a time when she wasn’t sick and played with her sisters in their backyard, running around in the summer’s heat. Freckles used to kiss her face during this time. Now, she was just bound to a hospital bed.

Not anymore though. She wasn’t going to be. They will have no choice but to let her out now when they saw her out of bed standing all on her own. They were going to have to let her go back to the hospital’s garden and smell all the flowers and taste the sweet tomatoes.  
The window was right in front of her, she could stick her hand out of it. She let it, letting her hand taste the rays of the sun for the first time in a few months. She felt so happy, so serene. She missed feeling the sun on her skin.

She thought back to when she was banned from going outside a few months ago. She had gotten a cold. Her immune system literally hated her that much that it sucked out the only joy she got. She was put in her room until she got better, and then she had an episode. 

It happened in the middle of the night of course. Everyone was in panic mode and they immediately gave her an airbag, because apparently she doesn’t breathe while experiencing one of these things. They stabilized her, and then waited for her to wake up. It took her three months this time. One of the longest it took her to come to. Then, she had another one a week later, and it wasn’t until two weeks ago till she woke up. 

She knew the tension in the hospital was high. They kept worrying because she took longer and longer to wake up. How long would it be until she never woke up? 

She wasn’t going to think about that though. She was just going to enjoy this moment. No nurses were in here, and no doctor for that matter. It was only her, and a boy that was honestly too frozen in shock to even say anything.

She let her hand dance in the rays of the sun. Maybe her hand will freckle the way it used to when she was a child. A little badge of pride that told her that she did it. She was so happy to be doing this. She could almost imagine herself back outside with her sisters, playing hide and seek with them. She was always the best hider out of all of them. No one could ever find her. It took them several rounds mostly, and sometimes dinner would be called and Zoë would have to search for her.

Her first episode was exactly like that. They had all been playing hide and seek, as usual, she had been the last one not found yet. Her mother called them all in for dinner, and when she didn’t show up, everyone sent Zoë out to find her. Zoë found her in the rose bushes, completely paralyzed and not breathing. She hauled her up and ran with her into the house, telling her mother to call an ambulance. 

Zoë had saved her life that day. Now Zoë was gone. All gone. At first it was just a hike, then it was a murder. 

Her legs couldn’t support her anymore. She buckled and fell to the floor in one swoop, almost like a gust of wind had knocked her over. She screamed out in frustration, banging her legs with her fists until Lester had showed up, sighing and shaking his stupid head.

She didn’t want his help, but her legs wouldn’t cooperate. They have been doing this more and more recently, and she had only gotten more and more frustrated about it. Red hot tears began to cloud her vision, and she couldn’t help but think how stupid it had looked. 

Lester finally helped her up, not relenting to her stubbornness this time, and hauled her back into bed.

She of course felt embarrassed as she tried to sop up her hot tears. She didn’t want the boy to see them. The jab that Lester had said about leaving soon really got to her, though. She wanted to throttle him more than ever in that moment. 

Her-leave? Yeah right. The only way she’ll leave is if someone would keep an eye on her 24/7, and with her family track-record...well, she might as well just get more comfortable in the all too familiar hospital.

Lester had left her to follow the boy out for long enough to let her get her crying down. She was angry, embarrassed, and most of all tired. She was tired of living this way, living in the hospital with nothing happening except her routine check-ups and those stupid episodes. 

She felt envious of all the people who were able to get discharged from this place. She knew that she was going to die here, the machines will only keep her alive for so long when she went into an episode. One day, they’ll fail no matter how many routine check-ups they got. Machines aren’t reliable, like humans, they die too. 

She dipped her head back on her pillows, her yellow blanket now resting in her lap. She twisted at it, feeling sorry for herself and the works. Did Lester really have to bring him up? He knew it was a sore subject. The time he spent with her had been the happiest she has ever been. She finally felt like she mattered, like maybe being in the hospital wasn’t so bad. They had shared their love of the ocean with one another. She had told him how dolphins were her favorite animal, and then he had gotten her the dolphin with the little stitching on its side. For once, that taunting saying didn’t feel too bad. She felt determined to get well soon so she could leave and be with him.

Then, he left, just like everyone else. His visits were less and less frequent, and then he just stopped coming all together. He mentioned a girlfriend the last time he was here, and she blamed her. She was the reason why he forgot her. 

She was so wrapped up with feeling sorry for herself that she didn’t even hear Lester come back in. 

“We have to take another vial, Calypso.” He instructed. She looked at him, he was more tired than the first time she had arrived, but that was when he still had a zest for life. He hadn’t had to deal with a patient who refused to get better, nor a patient where he didn’t know what was wrong with. 

She stuck out her right arm, the crook of her elbow littered with bruises from all the times they had stuck her with needles. She wasn’t going to argue with him, she was too tired. Between having that boy come in and over-exerting her body, she just wanted to take a nap.

“Demeter is going to be coming in with your lunch soon. Make sure to eat it all, okay?” He told her, slapping on his gloves and grabbing an alcohol pad to rub on her arm.

“That boy broke my dining tray,” she grumbled, wincing at the cold of the pad. She could be used to this, by now. However, she was still afraid of being pricked at with needles. She wanted her mother more than anything in this moment, to hold onto her and squeeze her eyes shut, avoiding the look of the long needle going into her severely bruised arm. 

Lester tutted his tongue, attaching the menacing needle to a vial. Calypso tried to take a deep breath, but it was stuck in her throat as he started to strap the arm band to her.

“I’ll tell her to bring a new one up, then.” He told her, he tapped at her arm a bit, trying to get her tired veins to pop up. Calypso imagined that they were sucked dry from having the blood drained from them so frequently. However, this was procedure. This was how they were hoping to find out what was wrong with her. He sighed suddenly and put his head down.

“Your veins aren’t cooperating,” he sighed. Calypso rolled her eyes as he began to unstrap the arm band from her. “I’ll come back during the night to see if they’re better. I know your left side won’t work for this, so I’m not even going to try.”

“Won’t the doctor be upset?” She asked. It wasn’t like she cared, but she and Lester had a weird sort of friendship. 

“He’ll understand. For now, rest, I guess. Demeter might have a little fuss over it, but I think you need the blood more than us right now.” He smiled at her as she rolled her eyes and clutched her blanket.

“You’re so kind to me,” she said sarcastically, trying not to show just how happy she was that she didn’t have to be prodded at. 

Lester started to put things away, occasionally rubbing his eyes from the tiredness he’s been experiencing. Calypso felt bad for him, he was here 24/7 most of the time, never really getting a break. His sister normally did night shifts at the hospital, but she’s been on extended leave for a bit. 

Calypso had met his sister several times, she was her night nurse, but she was usually asleep by the time she came in. She had known her sister fairly well, and had taken her and some other girls hiking every so often. Zoë often told her that one day when she wasn’t confined to a hospital bed that she would join them. Another hopeful dream gone down the toilet. 

She shook the memory from her head, and instead remembered another one. One that happened just yesterday night. There had been a disturbance in the hospital, someone was brought in late at night, kicking and screaming. It was a couple of doors down from her room, and she was interested in knowing who it was. 

“Who was the person who was brought in last night?” She asked softly. Her voice was hoarse from screaming so much, and her throat felt like it was on fire. Lester just shook his head and looked at her.

“Another regular. The di Angelo guy came back. He kept yelling at Dr Solace to let him go home, and kept telling him that nothing was wrong with him.” Lester explained. Calypso nodded her head. She has heard about this di Angelo kid, how he tended to over-exert himself and passed out. Again, they didn’t really know why he passed out so much, so Calypso felt a camaraderie with him, even though she’s never met him before.

She wondered if they would let her visit him one day. She may be getting her hopes up, but that didn’t stop her from wondering. Perhaps they’ll feel bad that she doesn’t talk to anyone aside from her nurse, doctor, and rare visitor. Maybe it’d be different.

The phone suddenly started ringing and Lester walked over, his white shoes squeaking on the white tiled floor. Maybe she should request a rug of some sort to mute the sneakers. It tended to annoy her and make her even more irritable if that was even possible.

Lester picked up the phone and put it to his ear, nodding at the voice. Calypso looked at him expectantly, hopeful that it was one of her sisters calling to apologize to her for not keeping up with the visits. Maybe they were calling saying that they’d be able to take care of her after all.

Her hopes were way too high. She knew this, and she knew that her fantasies got the best of her again when Lester groaned in frustration. She knew that sound, it was the sound he made any time someone disagreeable came to see him.

“It’s Meg isn’t it?” Calypso asked, hoping that she was wrong. She held onto that shred of hope that it was actually her sisters, her imagination running wild at the possibilities that awaited her if it was actually one of them. The home cooked meals, the warmth of family, the sense of belonging, the talks that they would share. If there was a God, please let that be it and not Meg.

Lester nodded and she felt her heart sink. She really needed to stop doing this to herself. Her sisters were never going to call her again, they forgot about her. She was going to be in this hospital until the day she died.

“I think she’s here to berate me for ditching her last night.” He explained, “I could hear her yelling insults at me.”

Calypso nodded. She has never met Meg, but she’s heard stories of her. Lester had been in a Big Brother sort of organization for kids and Meg was the one assigned to him. He had to take her out on regular sibling activities. Why Lester had even signed up for it was beyond her. Maybe he had gotten in trouble with his father and that was how he was supposed to redeem himself. 

She also didn’t understand why Meg had kept on visiting. She didn’t know the logistics of the program, but if her math was right, then Meg was nineteen now. It seemed strange to her as to why she kept talking to Lester. Though, maybe it was more than that. Maybe Meg felt something constant? From what Calypso could understand, Meg was orphaned as a child and grew up in an abusive household from her adoptive father. She had gone into the program as a troubled kid, so maybe she felt Lester was like an older brother of some sort. Calypso assumed that’s what Lester also felt, no matter how much he complained about it.

Calypso also knew that her mother worked at the hospital, and Meg didn’t find out that her mother was alive and working where her pseudo big brother worked until a few years ago. Someone should just make a soap opera out of this hospital with how much scandal and drama that goes down here. 

“Just go,” she told him, wrapping her hands in her blanket. Lester looked at her and shrugged.

“Can’t. I’m technically working,” he said, putting on that smug smile. “Can’t let my patient get hurt, now can I?”

“Like that’s ever stopped you before. Or should I remind you of that time where you snuck out to meet that girl at her place? Such the scandal, Lester. Or that time where you went to make out with the new nurse in the broom closet. I wouldn’t have known if he didn’t come in here with his scrubs all scuffed up and him telling me about what you did to him in full detail.” She bit. She knew she hit it on the head because his face flushed drastically. 

“Y-you said you wouldn’t talk about that!” He stuttered, his face now turning as red as a tomato.

She smiled at him, basking in her glory of making him embarrassed. “You better hurry, she might come barrelling through the halls any moment, and if I get sick because of her outside germs-”  
“Fine, just don’t speak of those times anymore, please.” He compromised, already leaving the room. She waved goodbye to him, her smile fading as soon as he left.

She was alone again. Her doctor was probably busy with the newest patients, and Demeter was probably going to take her sweet time, not that she was complaining. It just got so stifling in the hospital. She looked out the window, thinking about getting out of bed again, but her legs still felt numb, and her arms were heavy with trying to hold her up. Her adventures would have to hold off until another day.

She dipped her head back into the pillows and stared at the ceiling. The ever whiteness matched her walls and the tiled floor, which just made her feel that much more claustrophobic. Calypso thought of her sisters and mother. She thought about her father, someone that she hadn’t thought about since Zoë died.

She remembered the day she was told Zoë had died. She hadn’t gotten a call from her sisters, nor had they come in. Instead, her night nurse told her. She was the same woman that took Zoë on all those hiking excursions. Apparently, they had gotten separated for a few days, and when she had finally found her, Zoë was barely holding on.

Zoë had talked about the stars before she died. The stars that she had pointed out to Calypso late at night before Calypso was admitted to the hospital, before she was forgotten.

“And there’s Orion’s Belt, Calyp!” She exclaimed one night, pointing excitedly at the constellation. Her dark brown eyes were sparkling in the light of the moon, that Calypso felt that if the stories of Artemis that Zoë told her about were true, then she’d be a Huntress.

“It’s too bad that we can’t see a lot of them, though.” Calypso grumbled, snuggling deeper into her blanket. It was a cold night, so cold that she could see her breath. She never particularly liked the cold, something she inherited from her mother. It was why they were going to go to Florida to be in their winter house, to escape the frigid air. Calypso had wished that they stayed year round in that house by the beach. 

However, her sister didn’t seem to mind the cold, instead she thrived better in it. Zoë turned to her, brown eyes so warm that made her think of freshly baked brownies. Her sister was beautiful, with long black hair and dark skin. Zoë looked the most like their father, which she hated, but Calypso couldn’t help think that her sister was the most beautiful person in the world. She reminded her of a fairy tale princess in the books that she read at night. Her sister smiled warmly at her.

“That’s because of the light pollution, Calyp,” she whispered affectionately, booping Calypso’s nose. Calyp. Calypso had always like that nickname, it reminded her of catnip if said fast enough. Zoë had given her that nickname because of her fondness of cats, and how she insisted on growing catnip in their garden for the neighborhood cats. “Basically all the lights make the stars hideaway because they’re shy.”

Zoë had a way of explaining things to her that were simple, maybe it was because they were the same boat, having older sisters that over complicated things.

“One day, I’m going to take you where the world is least affected by light, and I’ll show you all the stars,” she promised. This excited her, a lot of times, her sisters would leave her out due to her only being their half-sister. 

“Promise?” She asked excitedly, pushing off the thick blanket, not even caring about the cold air anymore.

“Of course! It’ll just be me and you. We’re going to travel the world together and see all sorts of stars,” she told her, holding up her pinkie finger. “Pinkie swear!”

“Pinkie swear!” 

They clasped their pinkies together, locking them in place. They smiled together and slept on the roof that night, talking about stars and old myths with one another.

Calypso ripped her eyes away from the ceiling, moving her head up from her pillows and staring at her pinkie.

“Pinkie swear,” she mumbled, imagining a darker pinkie finger clasping hers tightly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhhhhh, yeah, hi, welcome to this! In case you didn't know, Calypso is actually my favorite character (does it show? Oops) so this chapter basically wrote itself. I don't know, I've written so many character analysis on her because I have no life, ahh. Also, I have several head canons that Zoë and Calypso were fairly close because I need that sisterly love. It's been several years since I first read the Percy Jackson series, but I'm still super sad about Zoë's death. I loved her so much. AND THEN THAT TEASE IN THE DARK PROPHECY I ABOUT DIED. Zoë bb please come back, I miss you. 
> 
> So, that's it for this chapter! Hopefully the next chapter will be out soon, I don't know since it's in Leo's perspective so I might rewrite it a couple of times before I'm officially happy with it. Ah, thank you so much for reading!
> 
> Also, thank you to all of the kudos on the last chapter, it's my first Percy Jackson fanfic that I'm actually uploading (and my first Caleo fic that I'm uploading as well, I have several Caleo fics that just were never posted.) I'm very passionate about this ship, oops. But yeah, those kudos made me very happy, so thank you!!!
> 
> Now, I just gotta work on my Calypso cosplay some more...gotta prep for the con that's coming up with my zero dollars!


	3. Chapter 3

Leo couldn’t get that place out of his head. It wasn’t like he was actively trying to remember it, however he was reminded every time he had to go to the hospital. First for Jason, then for Hazel’s brother. Could his life get any more great?

Each time he went, he would spot the door to her room. It was always slightly ajar, as if expecting visitors to come in. Sometimes he would hear the voices of the girl and the nurse, either it be yelling or just scathing jokes to one another. He tended to find himself walking towards the door, wanting to go in and see what was going on. It was ridiculous, he knew that. He had never even met the girl until a week or two ago, and now his mind was clouded with thoughts of her? Talk about a cheesy romance novel.

So far, none of his friends had noticed his odd behavior, which is he was thankful for. It was a good thing that all of the people he knew were accident prone, it made for a good excuse as to why he was so lost in thought. Besides, everyone was too busy worrying over the people in the hospital than him.

It was probably his disinterest in his dinner and the fact that he wasn’t fiddling with something causing his disinterest that sprouted the conversation between his pseudo grandmothers.

“Leo dear, you’re not eating.” The older woman across from him stated. She was spooning some more salad onto her plate, her kind brown eyes met with his from across the table, worry etched into them.

He didn’t want to worry her, but what could he say? It wouldn’t feel right to lie to her after everything that she and her wife had done for him for the past years. Still, he couldn’t just tell her that it was because of a girl that he just met and was sort of intrigued about. Not that he wanted to get to know her more, he was just puzzled by her.

Scraping his food with his fork, he gave a short shrug as he stared emptily at his plate. He wondered if the hospitals food was any good. He wondered if she ever had a fresh tomato before.

“What’s on your mind, kiddo?” Asked the other older woman, she had a veggie burger in her hands as she was about to take a bite. He really didn’t know what to say. He didn’t really want to tell them about the girl he saw in the hospital, thinking it’d be weird to express concern for a person he barely knew, and who had shown such hostility towards him when he made a simple mistake.

However, these two women knew when he was lying. They had ever since they took him in at fifteen years old. He couldn’t get anything passed them. Even so, maybe.

He shrugged his shoulders again, and poked at a carrot.

“I’m just worried about Jason. He still hasn’t woken up, or shown any signs of it. It’s making me antsy.” Technically, he was lying. He was telling the truth about his friend, and how much he worried for him.

His two caregivers shared a look with one another, and Leo just prayed to any higher power that they would just drop it and ask Georgie about her day at school. Anything to get him off the hot seat. Anything to get him one step closer to escaping to his room and being alone with his thoughts.

Blessings were upon him as they moved on from him, and started to grill Georgie about an upcoming project that was due and how she hasn’t even started yet. Georgie assured them that she could whip something up last minute and still get an ‘A’. Her mothers were not amused.

Still, he was glad with their distraction. Glad that they weren’t talking to him about his lack of appetite, and how he’s been more withdrawn recently. It seemed that all his extra energy left him in that hospital room, like the girl had sucked it out of him and just replaced it with her ghost.

The way she threw a fit when she couldn’t get up from the floor, how utterly betrayed she looked as her legs refused to work, refused to assist her in their job. He wondered how many times a day that happens to her. Wonder how many times her throat is hoarse by her frustrated screams and how many tears she’s shed in that tiny, suffocating hospital room.

He thought about all the things that she missed out on. Things that he took for granted. Going to school, something that had bored him to tears. Prom. He remembered joking around with Piper and Jason with how stupid it was. They had went anyway, and he and Piper had a blast making fun of all the fashion disasters that their fellow classmates had worn. Jason had politely stayed out of it all, but nodded his head in agreement every so often.

Most importantly, she missed out on meeting friends. Meeting Piper at a new, unfamiliar school was a saving grace. Then, Jason had come along and joined them and their band of misfits. When college rolled around, and they were all going to the same university, their group of friends just expanded, making them all inseparable.

She had missed out on all of that. Sure, she had the nurses and doctors, but he could just assume with how different of a dynamic that was for her. It wasn’t like she could go out to the bar and have a beer with them. He also assumed that she has never had alcohol before.

Never went to parties, or anything that was considered normal for a teenager. Hell, she didn’t even have a normal young adult life.

“Leo,” a voice called out. He immediately snapped out of his thoughts and looked at his guardian.

“Yeah, Jo?” Jo smiled warmly at him and chuckled softly. Shaking her head, he felt like she was in on a joke no one had told him about.

“Your dad is coming by tomorrow to check in on you. What time is good for you?” She asked. Leo had to try to refrain from rolling his eyes. His father. Sure, he had explained to him why he left his mother and him after he was born, but that didn’t excuse him from appearing into his life at fifteen, and then placing him in the care of Jo and Emmie. That didn’t excuse him from peacing out every time he wished to, and then only popping in when it was convenient for him.

_Dad_ , more like a stranger that he didn’t want to get to know.

“If this is about taking over his business again, then I don’t want any part of it.” He mumbled. He was being a brat, he knew. He was a twenty-three year and he was acting like this. However, he wasn’t there when Leo’s mother had died, and he was just a seven year-old kid being bounced around from foster home to foster home. Always on the run, always needing an escape. That is, until the law finally caught up with him, and they contacted his father who finally decided to reveal himself.

Yeah, he had every right to be acting like a brooding teenager.

“Leo,” Emmie interjected, putting on her coaxing tone of voice. A voice that had gotten him out of a lot of trouble that he was thinking of doing. However, it wouldn’t work this time.

“I don’t want to be suddenly important. He’s been an absentee father for years now. It gives him no right to suddenly want me to act like his son. Besides, I already have a plan on my own. Once I finish college, I’m going to officially open my own shop. I don’t want to be taking over his.” He explained. They couldn’t argue with him, he knew they couldn’t. He would feel no pride in if he just took over a man’s shop that he has little to no relationship with. There was no connection drawing him there.

Emmie looked like she wanted to say something just as his phone buzzed. He didn’t normally leave it on at dinner, he knew that Emmie and Jo both found it rude, but he was texting Piper for updates on Jason. Nothing had developed, so her texts were pretty straightforward. Sometimes she even told him what disgusting vegetarian option they had at the hospital.

He looked at the text, surprised it wasn’t from Piper at all. The name _Goldie_ was his only indication of who it was. Hazel.

_5:32 Goldie_

_Hey, sorry for texting, I know it’s dinner time. Just thought you should know that Nico’s in the hospital again._

Nico. Hazel’s half-brother. Right. He’s been in and out of the hospital for a while now. Now, he’s back in. Something about dizzy spells if he remembered correctly. He remembered that he would take mostly online classes because his health was always all over the place.

He quickly wrote back a reply, thanking her for telling him, saying sorry about that he was once again back in it, and when they were all going to barge into the hospital to wish him well. 

They normally never visit him because he doesn’t like it. Nico found their presence too annoying, and he would only allow Hazel. Frank was always a maybe. Everyone else could wait in the lobby. Though, the thought was there, and Hazel will still probably schedule a meet up since Jason was also there.

 The hospital. Why was his friend group so accident prone?

His thoughts immediately turned back to the girl. She had been in that room every time they had unsuccessfully visited Nico, and he had never known. It was probably because he had never really made it passed the lobby before Nico had texted Hazel to bar everyone in there, and that she was the only one worthy enough to see him so vulnerable. He used to let in more people, but Percy, Annabeth, and Reyna had all moved away. Reyna went into the military, and Percy and Annabeth were in grad school.

He wondered if the three of them had known about the hospital’s greatest secret. Probably not. She hadn’t seen anyone in two years, and Annabeth and Percy had moved away just last year. Besides, he was sure that they would’ve told them so they could all crash in on her there and be friends.

His phone buzzed again, and he could just feel Emmie’s annoyance from across the table. He checked it quickly.

_5:39 Goldie_

_Probably early afternoon tomorrow! We can also make it a point to visit Jason, too. I know Frank and I haven’t seen him yet. We’ve both been just so busy._

Busy. They have all been busy recently. Rarely been able to spend time together. Life had just gotten too hectic and was going by so fast.

“Who is that?” Georgie piped up, sensing the tension in the room. “Ooo, is it your _girlfriend?_ ”

Leo rolled his eyes at her good-naturedly.

“It’s Hazel. Nico’s in the hospital again, and we’re going over to visit him. I can’t see dad even if I wanted to. The shame.” He explained, feigning disappointment.

Emmie just sighed. Good grief, what was it with people sighing all the time?

“I have some assignments to work on for class that I really should get done. May I be excused?” He asked. Sure, he was twenty-three, but he still knew what manners were, especially towards the two women who raised him. Even though he did give them both grief from time to time.

Emmie nodded to him.

“Make sure to put your dishes in the sink.” She chided, taking a sip of water. He smiled at her, grabbing his dishes and walked over to the sink. He washed them off quickly and headed to his room.

The halls in the house always did confuse him, especially when he first moved in. At first, it seemed that the place was alive, constantly changing and moving things around just to mess with his mind. It reminded him of Harry Potter almost with how often they seemed to change. However, as he started to get older and more accustomed to the house, he learned that this place was a big maze and there was no way he was ever going to remember which hallway went where.

Even with the knowledge in mind though, it did frustrate him when he couldn’t find the bathroom in the middle of the night, and he ends up waking nearly the whole house.

The trek to his room, however, was luckily memorized, having been the first thing he made sure to remember.

He opened the door, barely acknowledging the numerous amount of sketches that littered almost everywhere in the room. Some of them were sketches of how he wanted his shop to look, others were inventions that he was planning on. Some of them were just random doodles of various comic book characters.

Some loose tools were scattered on the floor, something he failed to realize before he stepped on one and nearly cried out. Sure, Legos hurt, but there was nothing like being betrayed by your own tools. He silently cursed at himself, and vowed to pick up his room later. He was sure Emmie would have a heart attack if she saw his room in this mess.

He laid down on his unmade bed and looked at his phone. No new messages had popped up since Hazel sent her last one. He might’ve lied about his assignments. He had to do some, but he didn’t feel like doing them at this moment. He’d probably cram two nights before it was due again. He did some of his best work while staying up till 4 am like a dumbass.

His thoughts were all over the place. He couldn’t help thinking about that girl again. What was her name? Candy? Callisto? Merengue? Something like that. Still, he could still see the way she looked at him, her eyes filled with hatred, ready to strike him down in a moments notice.

Except, she couldn’t. As far as he knew, she was really confined to that bed, at least that’s what it looked like. Her legs didn’t seem strong enough to keep her up.

Why couldn’t he shake her from his mind? He had only really seen her once. Why was his brain holding onto how the sun played off her hair, exposing the hidden redness in it. Why did he keep thinking about the way she smiled as her hand tasted the warmth of the outside, forgoing the sterile hospital air.

He was starting to feel like a creep, and he wanted off this train, thank you.

His phone suddenly buzzed

_5:45 Fishy_

_Hey, man, me and Annabeth are going to be in town by tomorrow morning. Was wondering if you wanted to meet up before we go to the hospital to visit our dear accident prone friends?_

Weird. Percy didn't text him much. It wasn’t that they weren’t friends, they were. Though, mostly they stuck to saying everything in the group chat to one another. Also, it wasn’t often that he wanted one on one time with him, or maybe two on one time?

Maybe it was Annabeth’s idea. She was helping him sketch out his blueprints for his shop. Perhaps she has new sketch ideas that she wanted to share with him.

He quickly sent a reply to him.

_5:46_

_Yeah sure! Just tell me where y’all two will be and I’ll be there ;)_

He sent the text, snickering slightly. He knew that his friends tended to get annoyed with _y’all_ sometimes. Not his fault that most of them are city folk.

He tossed his phone aside and just stared at the ceiling. The fan lazily whirled, clacking every so often due to overuse. He was going to have to fix that one of these days. His hands itched to do it now, his mind yelled at him to get up to get his tools off the floor so he wouldn’t keep stepping on them. The rest of his body seemed to just collapse with all the pressure this week has brought him thus far.

Taking a deep breath, he let his heavy eyes close. Maybe he could take a nap for five minutes, then get right to work on those assignments. Then, he would clean up his room.

He took another deep breath, and he was out for the count. He dreamt of a girl in a hospital room, looking forlornly out of a window and into the inky black night sky, a full moon shining a soft white glow.

  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> uhhhhh, I don't really have a valid excuse? Happy New Year?


End file.
